Leopold Wilhelm von Rothaupt
'Leopold Wilhelm von Rothaupt, König von Nyrmark '(Born 25th of January, 1175, Died: December 27th, 1246) was the head of the royal House von Rothaupt and the de-jure King of Nyrmark by line of succession and his enthronement on the 3rd of October, 1194 CE. His reign has yet to see him being recognized as the head of state of the de-jure Kingdom of Nyrmark by any international organization and nations, while his and anyone else's claims by hereditary succession are ruled illegal by consitutional law of the Federal Republic of Nyrmark. Nonetheless, he has had significant influence across the former lands of Nyrmark, even after the dissolution of the North Nyrian Confederation (Nordnyrische Konföderation) on the 7th of October, 1194 CE. Early Life Political Circumstances Leopold Wilhelm was born during a catastrophic time for the nyrian people. The Empire of Kaniros had been chipping away at the Kingdom of Nyrmark since the fall of the Nyrian Empire as a result of Königsfurt's destruction in 1121 CE during the Nyrian-Valdrinian Coalition War of 1120-1122. Much of ceyer and southern nyrian territory had been occupied first by Valdrin and then by Kaniros after the former ceded it to the latter in 1123 as a repayment for their support in the coalition war. This robbed Nyrmark of the ancient ceyer capital and thus historical part of the House von Rothaupt's personal union with Ceyerstria that led to the formation of the Nyrian Empire, thus reducing it to a mere Kingdom. By the time of Leopold Wilhelm's birth the Kingdom's territory had been reduced to less than a third of its territory at the beginning of the century. Kaniros directly claimed northwest Nyrmark as a colony and established a Viceroyalty under Kanir Crown southwest of the surviving territory. The loss of territory forced the ruling King of that time, King Frederick VI of Nyrmark, Leopold Wilhelm's father, to restructure his realm into a monarchical confederation headed by the Crown of Khaßen (Khassia), the House von Rothaupt, the Nordnyrische Konföderation ''(North Nyrian Confederation) in 1179. This was done to appease the federal constituents of the Kingdom by giving them an illusion of increased autonomy through the guise of confederation, so as to prevent outright rebellion due to strong seperatist movements that were raging through society and fuelled by Nyrmark's losses in war. Education As the Crown prince of Nyrmark (''Kronprinz), he was baptized as a Reformed Tharminist in the Cathedral of Aakhen and enjoyed classical as well as military education traditional to northern nyrian culture. During those thirteen years of education, he learned several languages, amongst them Aedoln, Ghonyd-Valbrane and Kanirosian and developed an interest in music, having learned to play the clarinet and piano. He absolved secondary school on June 21st, 1192 with an Abitur ''grade of 1.8, and enrolled to the ''Führungsakademie Aakhen, a military academy in Aakhen renown for having had several great leaders as pupils already. His military education was cut short by a sudden declaration of war on the North Nyrian Confederation by the Empire of Kaniros on February 5th, 1194. As the declaration included the stated goal of complete annexation, the Kingdom initiated a mass draft of military personnel, of which even the crown prince would become part of. On April 2nd, he prematurely ended his career at the military academy and was awarded the position of Oberst-Leutnant ''(Lieutenant Colonel) by order of King Frederick VI. The Fall of Nyrmark Nyrmark was clearly outmatched at the start of this war, even with Vossland as an ally. While the Cold War between Kaniros and Valdrin caused both sides to focus their attention on other matters, which gave Nyrmark and other threatened nations a breathing pause, they were still extremely dangerous to Nurien and the rest of the world. As the war was clearly lead out of the wish of territorial expansion and the opening of an important sea route to Rialuath, they did not resort to thermonuclear weapons. Immediately after the public declaration of war, Vossland, Nyrmark's ally for the past four hundred years, joined the war on the Kingdom's side. King Frederick VI immediately called in a mass draft and fortified the land borders of the nation, hoping to turn the war into a lengthy War of Attrition by ordering the construction of kilometers long trenches alongside the manning of extensive artillery facilities behind them. According to his plan, Vossland would mainly supply Nyrmark with resources and prevent or destroy any kanirosian blockades until the Empire's manpower dwindles so much that a frontal attack and occupation of the Viceroyalty was possible. The plan was initially met with success. While Kaniros quickly moved to blockade much of the nyrian coast, the still sizable vosslandic fleet managed to break them and supply Nyrmark with a steady influx of resources; the same can be said for the western fronts, which held surprisingly well against the army of the Kanirosian Empire, to the point where even spec-ops missions by the enemy were quickly defeated by nyrian groups, thanks to their ''Auftragstaktik ''military philosophy. As a Lieutenant Colonel, Leopold Wilhelm served under Colonel Björn Henze of the 2nd West Khassian Grenadier Battalion, 1st Division (''Erstes Westkhaßisches Grenadier Battalion, Erste Division) - one of the surviving elite battalions of West Khassia, lost to Kaniros thirty years ago. There, in the following four months, he took part in battles that transcended the trenches, i.e whenever Kaniros managed to breach a trench, which only happened three times within that timespan. However, this success did not hold. The longer nyrian troops and vosslandic ships managed to hold Kaniros at bay, the more humiliated felt the Crown of Kaniros. International ridicule, espescially from their archenemy Valdrin, proved to further this provocation to the point where their monarch, Emperor Nelthar Kanir, decided to double the amount of fleets sent to the war. That was contrary to Kaniros' stated military policy of keeping valdrinian aggressive overseas expansion in check by projecting significant amounts of their naval power to key areas around Valdrin. This came entirely unexpected by King Frederick VI and his ally. While Vossland's fleet was still mighty and numerous, increased attacks with larger fleets slowly erroded the protection they could give Nyrmark, forcing them eventually to withdraw lest they'd expose their own coast. As the Kanirosian Empire could not afford to spread their manpower even further across Ingos Tenum, they hastily made a seperate peace agreement with Vossland, only extracting a meager sum of money from them. This spelt doom for Nyrmark, as the kanirosian naval blockade was almost immediately reinstated and vosslandic trade cut off. With now quickly diminishing resources and coastal areas under constant attack by Kaniros' landing parties, Nyrmark was forced to direct valuable manpower to the eastern peninsula, thus thinning the western trench lines. The enemy used this to full extent as they launched two massive attacks across both land borders, resulting in a disastrous loss for Kaniros at the south due to the 2nd West Khassian Grenadier Battalion's emergency response at Mittelsmoor, only about two miles away from the large Wymar forest that stretches across that region - nonetheless, Colonel Henze was killed during the defense and Lieutenant Colonel Leopold Wilhelm occupied his role from there on. The kanirosian attack at the northern border, however, turned into a battle taking an entire week to resolve, which ended in Nyrmark's defeat and a large enemy force marching towards Aakhen, the Confederation's capital. Leopold Wilhelm and his Battalion received message of the battle at the north and immediately left in a Gewaltmarsch, ''a very quick military march, for the north. In the meantime, his father, King Frederick VI, had rejoined the general staff and assumed control of the city's garrison and any troops stationed in the surrounding area, preparing to meet the enemy before they arrive at the capital. Frederick, a master of terrain, knew how to use the mountainous terrain of the north to his advantage, but the enemy army was nearly five times as large as his. Although met with success at first, their better weapons and larger numbers proved to be Frederick's undoing, as he himself was killed on the battlefield and his forces routed. Leopold's battalion arrived at Aakhen shortly after the now infamous ''Schlacht am Riesengebirge ''(Battle at the Giant Mountains) ended. The message of the King's demise arrived nearly simultaneously, and driven by revenge, he was enthroned as the new King of Nyrmark and commanded his 2nd West Khassian Grenadier Battalion one last time into the battlefield. Determined to route the kanirosian army literally into the sea, he met their forces at Saktenkirchen, a minor coastal city at Lake Sakten. The result - the legendary ''Drei Tage bei Sakten ''(Three Days at Sakten) or Massacre of Saktenkirchen - was described by one of its survivors, Helmudt Rahner, as follows: Indeed, the Massacre at Saktenkirchen's casualties number into the tens of thousands, the exact number having been concealed by Kaniros. The battle was so violent that, according to reports, a third of Saktenkirchen was levied to the ground and the rest covered with blood as the King even shelled the surrounding mountains en masse to cause massive landslides that would burry his enemies under the ground or sling them into the deep Lake Sakten. The battle endured for nearly three days, but ended in a phyrrhic victory, King Leopold Wilhelm's capture and the 2nd West Khassian Grenadier Battalion breaking. The details of what happened directly after this are scarce, but according to scattered reports by former kanirosian soldiers, the King reportedly gravely insulted his captors in fluent Kanirosian, which led to his right shin being shattered, reflective of the King's slight limp seen today. Contrary to expectations, the King was not executed but instead returned back to Akhen under permanent house arrest in Palace Rothaupt (''Der Rothauptpalast), the family's residence. Kaniros occupied the nyrian capital and one day later, King Leopold Wilhelm was forced to sign unconditional peace on the 7th of October, 1194, leading to the dissolution of the North Nyrian Confederation and the annexation of its former lands. The Occupation of Nyrmark Amendment of the Treaty The defeat suffered by Nyrmark in their last stand at Sakten proved to have effect beyond what both King Leopold and Emperor Kanir had anticipated. Nyrian nationalism skyrocketed, reaching historically unprecedented levels with extraordinary momentum. Merely hours after the signing of peace, a conglomeration of 56 cities openly declared resistance against the treaty's conditions, demanding the immediate end of occupation of nyrian lands and reinstatement of the King as head of state. Kaniros dismissed these terms and proceeded with violence against the rebellion, which soon proved unsustainable for both sides of the conflict. Valdrin's sudden increase in military activity in the vicinity to the Kanir Empire forced it to withdraw its fleet and much of its troops from Nyrmark. In the meantime, as Leopold was recovering from his wounds, he proposed to the Kanir provisional governor an amendment of the unconditional peace that would turn it conditional, as the troubles faced by Kaniros were even obvious to anyone within the gilded halls of Rothaupt Palace. The amendment's two main conditions were the establishment of King Leopold as König der Nyren, King of the Nyrians, rather than only König von Nyrmark, King of Nyrmark, so as to appease the Kanirosian claim on nyrian territory while also appeasing the nyrian people and providing them with a representative and "leader", with the other condition being the declaration of Akhen as an autonomous Freistadt ''(Free City) under control of a chancellor appointed by the King. Kaniros was firecely against this offer of amendment at first, but as the situation in Nyrmark got worse by the day, Kanir eventually agreed on modified terms. While Leopold was now referred to as ''King of the Nyrians ''and ''King '''in '''Nyrmark, ''they refused to acknowledge his claim on Nyrmark as a territorial entity by not mentioning his actual title of ''King '''of '''Nyrmark. ''His wish for Akhen's classification as a Freistadt went mostly accepted, though under the condition that King Leopold is under permanent house arrest in his palace and that the chancellor of the city is appointed by cooperation with the kanirosian viceroy of northeast nurien and him. Thus, the treaty was officially amended on the 29th of October, 1194. Life during the Cold War Nyrmark fell as an independent nation, but Leopold Wilhelm's quick diplomacy immediately following the signing of unconditional peace led to what is regarded a victory, one that was completely intended. He was aware that Nyrmark could not be militarily saved, but also that Kaniros would be unable to keep check of the nyrian people if they depose of their much beloved King who had gained immense fame and respect for his victories against the invaders, not to mention the now legendary ''Three Days at Sakten. Akhen being turned into an autonomous free city in the Northeast Nurien Viceroyalty was motivated by the large depopulation of southern and northwestern North Nyrian lands; the King anticipated that many former soldiers and families displaced due to the war and Kanir occupation would move to the city as it would, in effect, act as the last bastion of nyrian sovereignity. This assumption was correct and Akhen's population, wealth and manpower skyrocketed within the next decade, thus keeping the former capital alive and prosperous. Leopold Wilhelm accpeted his house arrest as a necessary step to guarantee the legality of the treaty he negotiated, but nonetheless grew weary of his imprisonment. Over the following years, his interest turned back to music and military study, becoming a scholar of both; it is a perpetual rumor that he has read each of the thousands of books stored within the palace's grand library. He never left politics out of his sight either and kept check of global political developments, espescially ones regarding the two rival superpowers, Kaniros and Valdrin, and the gradual end of political isolation on Rialuath - in particular of the An-Xileel Empire, who had arrived merely fifty years prior to his birth on Ingos Tenum and were subject of distrust and speculation by him. Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Nyrians Category:Nobility Category:Status: Deceased Category:Royalty Category:Politicians